הומניסט אוהב השלום ניגש למושל בעל שררה ופונה אליו בזו הלשון:

“אל לך לעשות מלחמה, גם אם אתה מצפה שהניצחון יגדיל את רווחתך.היה נא אציל ורחב-לב, ווותר על הניצחון המפתה גם אם הדבר ידורש ממך להקריב את יתרונותיך".
הליברל חושב אחרת.
לודוויג פון מיזס

But—as Raymond is the first to point out—these results can be interpreted in a very different way. It could be that reading fiction, over time, boosts your empathy. But it could also be that people who are already empathetic are simply more drawn to reading novels. This makes his research controversial, and contested. He told me that it’s likely that both are true—that reading fiction boosts your empathy, and that empathetic people are more drawn to reading fiction. But there’s a hint, he said, that reading fiction really does have a significant effect: one of his studies found that the more a child is read storybooks—something the parents, more than the kid, choose—the better they are at reading other people’s emotions. This suggests that the experience of stories really does expand their empathy.

Johann Hari 'Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention--and How to Think Deeply Again'